The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-02-17
TERRIFIC STORMS.
ON THE WIDE SASKATCHEWAN
PLAINS.
Mercury sixty-Thres Degrees Mellow
zsro-snow Flakes Larsgr Than MIX
tCans--AvalanchesB iiy1,rds and 0ther
Horrors--rhe sheep Industry Ems
tirely Ruined,

A special from Fort Keogh, Mont, Gays,
This has teen tho the most severe winter
here for years, From January O to IL the
cold was something frigh;fuL Mercury
thermometers were olten CONCEALED, md
,pirit thermometers were busy jumping from
40 degrees to 20 degrees below gro. Half
dozea times had the sixty note boen touched
and once this season bS degrees below zero
has been scored ON the Saskatchewan plains.
Already this winter number of deaths
from cold have occurred in Dakota Charles
Schroeder, Twin, near Valley City, started
from his house for one 600 feet distant. A
blizzard was blowing and the thermometer
registered So below. Not reaching home,
his family and neiglbo, turned
cut with lanterns, foloHed his tracks
in the snow all night and found where he had
laid down in straw stack and then gone en-.
The body was found twelve mics away on
the pra RTE, lying on its face, where he had
fallen from exhaustion The body was fro>
zen into chunk of ice. Maggie Bum a
school teacher at Highmore, while going from
the school to her house, was frozen to death
The bodi OF three Indians were found fro
zen near Ashland WIN belonged to the Btr-
thold agency. Several more have been MISS
sing since Christmas and they must have
been caught out. Their bodies will probably
be found when the snow melts in the spring.
Stage drivers are having the toughest expe-
/ rences OF their lives. They are III, heroes
of Montan'. The frightful experience of Fox
and Montgomery on the Benton stage bound
for Helena twenty days o. will go down in
history as the worst OF the kind They were
without food and drink for forty hours A
stage driver started February from Fort
Buford for Glendove When seventeen
miles out the stage was caught in a blizzard
and one of The horses frozen TO death.
A Manitoba engineers party of five left
Buford last week for the end of the track
grading. When they came to the crest or
the hill :he worst blizzard of the season
sprang up, and they were compelled to go
into camp on the spot 1t was simply I'M
possible to travel in any direction in such
storm. On that exposed knoll they passed
from Friday to Monday without wood or
food. They finally escaped more dead than
alive. Tom Williams, sheep herder near
Mossgate Springs about 90 years old, was
discovered, living face downward, dead, in
the snow. A band of British Cree Indians
came scross the line and camped in tbs
mountains between the forks of the Sun
| river. An unusual snow followed, AID the
wretched creatures became penned in by all
| icy wall From seventy the number was
reduced to fifty~one by starvation, when
| white men hunted them up and brought
relief. A band of half breeds is reported
covered up on Lonesome prairie, and "a nun.
Der of Nez Perces Indians. a remnant OF
Chief Joseph's famous band, who fought
Generals Miles and Howard SO stubbornly,
have been showed in on Colville reservation.
-Four feet of snow prevented hunting game,
and many died Of Geld and hunger.
During the latter part OF January fifty
| lodges Of Crow Indians camped on Clark's
fork, came near diving Many did perish,
but the majority managed to sustain life by
eating the cattle that died in the ow
drifts. 1t is almost impossible to say what
| damage has occurred with stock and cattle.
| AS q rule horses and mules have done well,
but ctttle and sheep have been more than
| decimaled. Some authorities say that the
sheep industry is nearly wiped out, except
where shelter and food were provided. It
is hard to get news from remote ranges, as
the country is still b'ockadcd and locomot on
is impossible except on snow shoes. Twelve
hundred out of 1900 sheep were lost in one
| locality, and the survivors wore so badly
mutilated By coyotes and wolves that many
died. Some sheepmen in Western Montana
have lost whole herds, Long lines of cattle
have been drifting into thu Missouri river,
and hereabouts many hundreds have per-
ished in water holes. A man who has just
come in; Billings says ha ounted go head
of animals in the road in four days, and
does not know how many more in the bush.
| Parties from the Bull mountains report
numerous dead cattle Many are buried in
the snow. Another man counted forty five
dead cattle. In the upper Missouri country
shay is worth SO ton more than the face
| value, and it does not pay to feed. Near
Benton some cattle were seen 20 stand in tho
snow with freezing legs. Others were liter
ally frozen in their tracks. Arount Miles
City the outlook is the best of all. Stockmen
ore more hopeful there than elsewhere.
A fuel famine has been prevailing along
the upper Missouri. At Fort Benton willow
poles are Sl7 to SIT 50 LOAF, and water
logged cottonwood Sl4 cord. Ono family
here used them to keep from freezing. Bars
and outbuiIdings have been consum d. A
blizzard was reported from Helena yesterday
morning. blowing eastward, twenty miles an
hour. Stockmen and ranchers were warned
to hurry the cattle and effects out of the
river bottoms. Advces just received say
that blizzard is raging just above Helena,
| and that it Is showing in that locality